1st administrative history/biography: Carl Bach was born on 08.03.1847 in Stollberg in the Erzgebirge mountains as the son of the saddler master and carriage builder Heinrich Julius Bach. After attending primary school and private school in Stollberg, he completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith. In the years 1863 and 1864 he worked in the steam engine construction of the company R. Hartmann in Chemnitz. During this time he learned English in addition to his work. Then he was first a pupil of the Gewerbschule, later of the Werkmeisterschule, where he graduated at Easter 1866 with the overall grade 1 and the silver medal, which was only awarded in one copy. This year he took part in planning work for the Chemnitz water pipeline under the direction of Prof. Kankelwitz. After the following studies at the Polytechnikum Dresden he followed Prof. Kankelwitz as assistant for the years 1868 to 1872 to Stuttgart. After this time Bach studied again, this time with Grashof at the TH Karlsruhe, where he earned his diploma in 1873. In the following five years he worked as an engineer in Wollwich, London and Vienna, finally becoming director of Lausitzer Maschinenfabrik AG in Bautzen. He was elected to the Zittau Chamber of Commerce in 1877 and married in the same year. On 01 October 1878, Bach was appointed full professor of mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Stuttgart, where he established the Materials Testing Institute in 1884 and the Engineering Laboratory eleven years later. From 1885 to 1888 he was rector of the TH Stuttgart. One year later, on 20 June 1889, Bach was awarded the silver commemorative medal by the King of Württemberg on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the government. In February 1892 he received the Knight's Cross and on 25 November 1895 the Honorary Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown, connected with the nobility of persons. He was also awarded the title of "Construction Director". Already in 1883 Carl Bach was appointed to the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich, in 1895 to the Technical University in Berlin and in 1902 unofficially to the Technical University in Vienna. However, he did not follow any of these calls. On 22 March 1911 he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the 2nd Class of the Albrecht Order by King Friedrich August of Saxony, in 1914 the title "Staatsrat", in February 1916 he was awarded the Wilhelmskreuz by the King of Württemberg, in February 1918 the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown. Also this year Bach was the first technician in Württemberg to receive the title "Excellence". From 1912 to 1918 Carl von Bach was a member of the 1st Chamber of the Württemberg State Parliament for the TH Stuttgart. On his 70th birthday, 1917, he became an honorary citizen of his hometown Stollberg and on his 80th birthday an honorary citizen of Stuttgart. In 1920 the senate of the TH Stuttgart had him paint for the senate hall. Two years later Bach was emeritus. In 1926 Bach was painted again, this time for the conference hall of the VDI in Berlin. Carl von Bach died in Stuttgart on 10 October 1931. He holds honorary doctorates from the TH Berlin (1903), the University of Tübingen (1927), the TH Vienna (1927), and the TH Stuttgart (1927). In close cooperation and lively exchange of ideas with renowned entrepreneurs and inventors such as Robert Bosch, Paul Daimler, Rudolf Diesel, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and many others, Bach succeeded in bridging the gap in mechanical engineering between practitioners such as Redtenbacher (Karlsruhe) and theorists such as Reuleaux (Berlin) by purposefully combining theory and practice through experimental research in mechanical engineering and civil engineering. In order to secure the scientific basis, Bach successfully established two research institutes, the Materials Testing Institute 1884, of which he was director until 1922, and the Engineering Laboratory 1895. On his initiative, the first chair for aeronautics and automotive engineering was established in Germany in 1925, together with the associated laboratory. Based on his work, Bach is regarded as the founder of static elasticity and strength theory. Both from his own experience and from his work in business circles and technical associations, Bach was aware that the rapid development of German industry required a fundamental reform of engineering education. He demanded a "workshop practice" of at least one year. Bach considered solid practical experience supplemented by thorough, comprehensive training in natural science and technical subjects, but also the teaching of humanities disciplines, the "humanisation of technical universities", to be absolutely essential for the engineer of the future. His educational policy intentions, which he realized in his more than 40 years of work at the Technical University of Stuttgart, he achieved above all through the Association of German Engineers. The appreciation of Bach as a teacher and scholar is expressed not only by his appointments to other universities, but also by the orders and honours of crowned heads and associations of a technical, scientific and socio-political nature, as well as the magnificent letter of thanks from the students of the TH Stuttgart. 2nd inventory description: Carl von Bach (1847-1931) was one of the most important German technical scientists of his time. In the field of mechanical engineering and material testing he did pioneering work, which is the basis for today's problems and solutions. The estate of Carl von Bach comprises a total of about 40 running metres. Archive material. However, this material does not only contain the scientific legacy of Bach, but much more: in addition to the scientific works - almost all manuscripts of his major works are available in various editions - an extensive part of his private legacy is also preserved. In addition, the University Archives also contain the estate of his son Julius Bach. He was bequeathed in his will the entire legacy of his father's writings, which he finally bequeathed to the then Technical University of Karl-Marx-Stadt alongside his own. Particularly valuable in the estate of Carl von Bach, if one can even pick out a subgroup, is the traditional business correspondence. On approx. 50,000 sheets, both the correspondence received and the correspondence sent out over the period from 1876 to 1931 are almost completely handed down. Because of Bach's focus on work and research, the theory of strength and elasticity, of which he was a co-founder, he came into contact with various representatives from science and industry. Moreover, Bach was a very socially committed person, which is also reflected in this correspondence. However, the preservation of the tradition is endangered. In particular, the copial books with the outgoing correspondence will only be released for use in exceptional cases. The degree of preservation of the writing material is particularly problematic here. As a rule, the deceased did not use commercially available ink, but mixed it himself in varying compositions, some of which faded very strongly. In addition, the transparent paper of the books is only of little stability. For this reason, the business correspondence in the Bach estate was completely filmed and digitized. Selected documents are recorded on colour film and are available as negatives and positives. The Subdivision of the Estate Carl von Bach's estate is divided into six sections in its provisionally final stage of indexing: I. Biographical material This group includes personal documents, testimonies of his educational and professional career, documents about his military service, honours, vocations, anniversaries and autobiographical records. II. private correspondence This is arranged chronologically according to the members of the family and within them. Of these, the correspondence with his son Julius is the most extensive and certainly also the most interesting, since it contains the discussions of various technical problems that were conducted between the two scientists. III. business correspondence This cannot claim to be complete, but the extent of the overdelivery is impressive. Particularly remarkable is the tradition of the outgoing mail, which is recorded in a total of 35 copial books on approx. 35000 sheets. They cover the period from 1876 to 1903 and from 1909 to his death in 1931. Within these copies the letters are arranged chronologically and for almost each of these books there is a register of names of the addressees, which has been made by the deceased. However, the Kopialbücher also contain copies of incoming letters and various concepts, orders, etc., which Bach probably regarded as particularly important. Also the mail archived in this group is quite remarkable with 18 000 sheets. In total, there are about 2500 correspondents in the group of business correspondence. With regard to the two sections on private and business correspondence, it should be noted that correspondence can also be found outside these sections, in the fact files. IV. Business papers Here you will find the manuscripts of his countless publications, statements and expert opinions on the fields of science covered by Bach, as well as extensive material collections on these questions. His work on material testing, the durability of steam boilers and riveted joints, etc. can be particularly well understood here. Bach himself created firm portfolios in which he collected all possible processes into one subject and then labeled them accordingly. This state of order and distortion was largely adopted during the earlier processing of the estate, without verifying the content in detail. This situation was resolved in 2007. The order by subject has been maintained, but the folders have been repackaged and the file titles have been supplemented with extensive "Contains" notes to facilitate access to this material. In addition, papers from the estate of Julius Bach were added to this section, but these clearly have their origin in Carl Bach. V. Material Collections Various types of material have been summarized here. This concerns e.g. his membership cards, orders, promotional gifts, material samples or also different photos. Sections 4 and 5 have not been rearranged, but have been taken over from the original legator. VI. Non-provenance material Here is the material about the legator that was later added to the estate, such as obituaries or copies of and about Bach from other archives. In the revision of the estate, further material on Carl Bach was added. Of particular note here are the numerous photos of the Carl Bach family, which were made available in digital form for the collection. The inventory signature is the number 302, followed by an indication in Roman numerals and the individually numbered file units (in Arabic numerals). The Roman numerals indicate the six different groups. Example: 302 / III / 0123 Carl von Bach estate estate / business correspondence / foreign correspondence America: Argentina, Chile, Canada, USA Inventory processing The Carl von Bach estate has not yet been finally catalogued. At the beginning of the processing in the 80s a file was created, which was the basis for the input into the database at the end of the 90s. The data was transferred unchanged. A new classification was developed for the estate, according to which the entered units of registration are arranged. New file titles have been created in the Biographical Material, Private and Business Correspondence sections. In 2007, sections IV to VI were finally developed in greater depth. Although most of the titles of the files in the business papers and material collections were originally taken over by the testator, they were supplemented with extensive remarks. The present finding aid book thus represents the most recent state of processing for the time being. Digitisation The correspondence in the estate has been completely filmed and digitised from the film. Due to the state of preservation, the originals are no longer released for use. A high quality silver halide film has been used to secure the existence of the company. As a rule, this part of the estate is used via the electronic data on the PC. The designation of the CD-ROM corresponds to that of the file unit. During scanning, the individual sheets were numbered consecutively. The first part of the file name, however, reflects the file unit. However, the file numbers do not match the page number. 3. state of indexing/scope: indexed; find book, database, digitised material; scope: 40.75 running metres.
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